Vermont’s governor has signed a bill making it the first U.S. state to ban fracking, the controversial practice to extract natural gas from the ground.

“This is a big deal,” Gov. Peter Shumlin said Wednesday. “This bill will ensure that we do not inject chemicals into groundwater in a desperate pursuit for energy.”

According to an earlier story in Huffington Post, Vermont isn’t believed to have a lot of underground natural gas.

And while New York is quite different from the relatively tiny Green Mountain State, some New York activists weighed in on the decision:

“When I went to VT to testify before the Senate committee it was refreshing to see legislators listening and asking important questions about the science,about the geology, the wastewater, and possible health impacts and showing real concern for their agriculture, said Wes Gillingham, Program Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper. “We urge Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature to listen to the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who have called for a ban in order to protect New York’s communities from fracking’s unacceptable dangers.”